Exploiting the remarkable capability of viruses to transport gene therapies past what until now has been a circulatory roadblock is at the heart of a University of Alberta-led discovery that promises to re-energize the field of genetic medicine.
John Lewis, an oncologist in the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry and the lead author of the study describing the advance, explains that the primary obstacle to safely and effectively distributing therapeutic agents throughout the body is the liver.
"Current delivery systems are great in theory, but they have a significant flaw they home in on the liver," says Lewis. "You can get them to work in a dish, but as soon as you inject a drug into a person, these technologies often fail."
